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Displaying items by tag: World Speed Sailing Council

Dublin windsurfer Oisin Van Gelderen has an anxious wait for verification that he broke the Irish Speed Sailing record yesterday.

"I know for sure my Max Speed of 47.17 knots is the fastest any Irish sailor has ever done" he claims.

The current record, approved by the World Speed Sailing Council, was set by John Kenny in February who achieved a personal best of a burst of 45.3 knots (it's 84 kph) and averaged 42.52 for the 500 metres.

Van Gelderen describes the build up to yesterday's record attempt at the UK's West Kirby venue:

"The wind was pretty strong - 30-40 knots, so I rigged my brand new Pryde 4.7m RSRacing - just to get the hang things. As it turned out, this sail was perfect for me all day (I'm not the heaviest speed-sailor at 78 kgs).

I knew my board was already fast, but I'm also delighted with the sail, which was rigged for the first time and performed straight away without any tuning.

Van Gelderen's record breaking tracks are HERE

kirby1

Oisin Van Gelderen concentrates on a speed sailing record run in West Kirby yesterday, its famous wall in the background

 

Published in News Update

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.